Initial unemployment insurance claims declined to 312,000 during the
week ended June 21 from 314,000 in the prior week, revised from 312,000.
The latest claims level matched expectations in the Action Economics Forecast
Survey and remained slightly higher than the 298,000 low in early-May.
The four-week moving average of initial claims ticked up to 314,250, still
near the cycle low.

Continuing claims for unemployment insurance in the week
ended June 14 notched up to 2.571 million (-13.6% y/y). The four-week moving
average fell to 2.587 million, a seven year low. The insured rate of
unemployment notched up to 2.0%. This particular count
covers only "regular" programs and does not include all extended
benefit and other specialized jobless insurance programs. In the week of
June 7, the latest available, the total of all benefit recipients declined
to 2.441 million (-46.4% y/y), a new cycle-low. This broader measure is not seasonally
adjusted. It compares to a cycle peak of 12.060 million in January 2010
and pre-recession figures that averaged 2.596 million in 2007.
Year-on-year comparisons are impacted by the expiration of the Emergency
Unemployment Compensation program at the end of 2013.

By state in the June 6th week, the insured rate of unemployment
continued to vary greatly with South Dakota (0.38%), Virginia (1.04%, South Carolina
(1.05%), Louisiana (1.16%), Tennessee (1.25%) and Texas (1.38%) at
the low end of the range. At the high end were Illinois (2.28%),
Pennsylvania (2.63%), Connecticut (2.74%), California (2.77%), New Jersey
(2.81%) and Alaska (3.73%). These data are not seasonally adjusted.

Data on weekly unemployment insurance are contained in Haver's WEEKLY
database and they are summarized monthly in USECON. Data for
individual states are in REGIONW. The expectations figure is from
the Action Economics survey, carried in the AS1REPNA database.